This relates to a computer that uses parallel processors and, in particular, to one that uses a vastly greater number of parallel processors than previously.
A typical digital computer includes a central processing unit (CPU), a memory which stores data and a program for controlling the computer, and various input and output devices. The stored program is a series of instructions that directs the CPU to perform certain arithmetic, transfer or logical operations on the data available to the computer. Such data are ultimately provided to the computer from the input devices, and the results of the CPU operations are supplied to the output devices. In the typical computer this series of instructions is executed serially one-at-a-time.
In the forty or so years that digital computers have been used, the computers and the programs that run them have become more and more complex. Increasing complexity in a serial computer is usually manifested by increases in the size of its memory and the programs and/or data stored therein. In some senses, however, these more complicated serial computers have become less and less efficient. At any given time, only a very small part of the serial computer is actually being used because the instruction that is being executed by the CPU is obtained from no more than a few memory locations and affects data at only a few other locations. Moreover, as the computer becomes smarter in terms of the size of its memory, it becomes dumber in terms of its ability to produce an output from its memory because the time required to retrieve data from the memory increases with the amount of data stored in the memory.
These problems with serial computers have been called the von Neumann Bottleneck, after John von Neumann who contributed so much to the early development of the serial computer. See J. Backus, "Can Programming Be Liberated from the Von Neumann Style?", Communications of the ACM, Vol. 21, No. 8, p. 613 (August 1978).
These problems are particularly acute in the field of Artificial Intelligence where the computer is often called upon to retrieve knowledge stored in a network of interrelationships that is often referred to as a semantic network. Retrieving this knowledge may involve searching the entire network. It may also involve deducing the desired fact from other stored information. In performing such retrieval, a few simple operations are often repeated for most of the operating time of the program. Such operations include:
1. the sorting of a set of data according to some parameter such as size or numerical order; PA1 2. the searching of ordered sets of data or graphs for sub-sets or sub-graphs with a specified structure; PA1 3. the matching of patterns against sets of assertions; PA1 4. the deduction of facts from the semantic networks of stored information.
Performing such operations one-at-a-time can be prohibitively expensive in terms of computer time and facilities. As a result, numerous problems in Artificial Intelligence cannot be addressed by presently available serial computers. These problems, however, are fundamental problems such as image processing for which solutions are urgently needed.
Alternatively, the time for performing such operations can be reduced if it is possible to perform such operations in parallel. The desirability of doing such is well recognized. See, for example, C. Mead and L. Conway, Introduction to VLSI Systems, ch. 8, "Highly Concurrent Systems", Addison Wesley (1980), and the references cited therein; W. D. Hillis, "The Connection Machine", Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Memo No. 646 (Sep. 1981) and the references cited therein; also A. Rosenfeld, "Parallel Image Processing Using Cellular Arrays", Computer, Vol. 16, No. 1, p. 14 (Jan. 1983).
These documents also describe to varying degrees general concepts of devices for performing parallel operations on data. For example, Hillis and Rosenfeld contemplate an array of identical processor/memories, each of which contains both the hardware required to store data and that required to process it. However, the specific details of a fully operating computer including the interconnection of processor/memories and their control are not the subject of these papers.